About The ProductionPrincipal photography on "The Insider" commenced in Louisville, Kentucky, home of the Kentucky Derby and the Louisville Slugger Baseball Museum, where the historic Seelbach Hotel served as a key shooting location. A local bank building stood in for the site of Brown & Williamson's home office. The company also filmed in the suburban neighborhoods of Hurstbourne and Seneca Park where Wigand lived, and at DuPont Manual High School, where he worked after leaving Brown & Williamson.

Returning to Los Angeles briefly for interior work, the company then proceeded to Big Bear Lake, using the rustic location to double for Montana where Bergman tracked the Unabomber story. The winter scene, shot in July, required artificial snow. Snow Business, a British company, spent two days covering the northern Grout Bay corner of Big Bear Lake with 15 tons of 99% biodegradable cellulose.

The production moved on to Berkeley, California to shoot at a location down the street from Lowell Bergman's home. On its last night in the Bay area, the company crossed to San Francisco to shoot a meeting.

The film returned to Louisville, then went to Pascagoula, Mississippi. Pascagoula is known as the Flagship City of the Mississippi Gulf for its shipbuilding, petrochemical industry, and seafood industry.

Looking at the movie set in the temporary courtroom in Pascagoula, where the deposition actually took place, Mississippi Attorney
General Michael
Moore was surprised by the attention to detail, both in the set and the depiction of courtroom activity. "There were about fifty or sixty tobacco lawyers piled up over there," he recalled, pointing to the far side of the room. "Some of them were actually smoking cigarettes,
blowing smoke
rings. They were the most arrogant bunch I've ever seen. But when we
finally got the word that Jeffrey would give his deposition, I walked in and gave the signal. And all these guys went nuts."

Attorney General Moore appreciated director Mann's scope of knowledge on the issue and history of the case. When asked to play himself in the movie, Moore laughed, "I guess it does add a dose of reality. It was the most important thing I'll ever do as a lawyer, so I guess I saw it as a chance to have some fun and be a part of history again.

Richard Scruggs also remembers reading for the director to play himself in the movie. "I auditioned with Michael Mann and Al Pacino, reading lines with them one day in Washington. After we did it, Michael Mann put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Dick, that was really a good job, but I think we're going to get a professional actor to play you." Scruggs volunteered to be an extra in the courtroom, becoming, in his words, "One of the guys that follows Dick Scruggs around." In addition, key scenes around Wigand's momentous decision to testify were recreated where they actually happened, at Scrugg's home on the Gulf.

The company traveled to Mobile, Alabama to double for a night scene in New Orleans where Lowell
covers another story while taking Jeffrey's call about receiving a death threat. A reduced company moved on to a secluded island in the Bahamas to shoot Bergman's forced vacation from "60 Minutes," with a brief interruption to evacuate from the path of Hurricane Bonnie. The production then went to New York to shoot New York City exteriors and interior CBS offices. Finally, the company traveled to Israel, which doubled for Lebanon in the opening scenes of the movie.